Mutual funds ask investors to provide vital contact details such as e-mail ID and mobile numbers to be able to send timely alerts and other useful information. Application forms contain fields for filling these critical contact details which investors may not always fill as they are not mandatory.
A number of special features and facilities are available to investors who provide these contact details.
Many funds send advance e-mail alerts for mandated transactions such as SIP, which serve as a reminder and to ensure availability of funds.
Post-transactions confirmations by e-mail serve both as a confirmation of transaction initiated by the investor and also as an alert if there has been an activity in the account.
Access without PIN
Investors wish to regularly update themselves with information regarding their portfolios, to check valuations, and require statements to help in filing returns and check the details of transactions in their folios in a particular period. To give the investor easy access to information about their investments, registrars provide them with a host of self-management tools on their Web sites.
From regular statements to portfolio snapshots, from consolidated statements to transaction confirmations, investors can have all the information they require in a few clicks. To make use of many of these facilities, the only requirement is that you should register your e-mail id in your folios. Some useful self-help facilities for investors offered by registrars through their Web sites are enumerated below.
One of the most popular and widely used services provided to investors by registrars is the mailback service. This refers to statements mailed back to investors at their registered e-mails ids.
Even without a PIN, investors can visit the mailback service section of registrars’ Web sites and place a request for a wide range of statements, which is mailed back within minutes.
What’s more, investors can now get aggregated information — statements with details consolidated across funds. The only prerequisite — your email id should be registered in your folio. The following variety of statements are included:
Portfolio valuation statement: This gives a snapshot summary view of your portfolio of funds showing cost and market value, period of holding, and returns. Asset allocation charts show how your money is distributed among funds — a useful tool to keep track your portfolio.
Consolidated account statement (consolidated across registrars): You can now get a statement which consolidates folios and transactions across mutual funds serviced by various registrars, presenting a one-view transaction account statement for a time-period of your choice. Investors can get not only one consolidated statement giving transaction details, but also a summary statement giving just a summary of the holding as on a particular date.
Transaction details in excel sheets: A statement is even available for those who require transaction details in an excel format.
In addition to the above statements which detail all folios that you may hold, single folio account statement and a statement of realised gains is also available through mailback to investors. Investors whose mobile number is registered can receive transaction alerts and confirmations through SMSes and also useful reminders such as about an upcoming SIP instalment. Some mutual funds have also enabled transactions order placing through mobile.
(Contributed by CAMS Viveka, an investor education initiative from CAMS. The views expressed are general practices in the mutual fund industry and may vary according to the case.)